The Impact of Wire Environment on Electro-Explosive Fuse Performance

The environment surrounding an exploding wire is known be a controlling factor in electro-explosive fuse performance. Recent experiments have shown that the application of an insulating surface coating to the fuse wire can significantly increase the rate of impedance transition and impedance magnitude of the exploding wire. This paper discusses the performance of surface coated fuses tested in commonly used solid and gaseous media. For comparison, these experiments are compared to bare wire fuse experiments in identical environments. Previously developed exploding wire models are utilized to aid in the interpretation of the experimental fuse behavior. Differential wire voltage, voltage pulse length, and degree of post vaporization conduction (i.e., restrike) are discussed for each experiment.